tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6045486872620706747.post9114964912631422810..comments2022-09-25T08:05:08.039-07:00Comments on The Numinous Book of Review: Nightshade and Damnations: by Gerald KershJ McEvoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04041757652557198819noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6045486872620706747.post-12647610241284135682015-09-11T16:36:52.527-07:002015-09-11T16:36:52.527-07:00Quite an impressive roster of reprints at Valancou...Quite an impressive roster of reprints at Valancourt, Kersh and others. I think I will stick to his stories for now, though I'm sure that I have a lurid old paperback of one of his novels somewhere. I think I happened across Corporal Cuckoo in several anthologies, though I don't remember which. Comrade Death does sound rather interesting.J McEvoyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04041757652557198819noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6045486872620706747.post-80659588842225948422015-09-11T10:25:04.950-07:002015-09-11T10:25:04.950-07:00And I've remembered where I first heard of him...And I've remembered where I first heard of him - it was "Comrade Death" in Mary Danby's <i>65 Great Tales of Horror</i>, about the development of a megalomaniacal arms dealer from humble huckster to world-bestriding supervillain. As a connoisseur of apocalypses, you might well enjoy that one.Philiphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18076353733931722397noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6045486872620706747.post-40727314376380848712015-09-11T06:14:02.081-07:002015-09-11T06:14:02.081-07:00As to the novels, I think Night and the City got b...As to the novels, I think <i>Night and the City</i> got briefly resurrected thanks to a 1990s remake of Jules Dassin's film noir. A few others have been resurrected by <a href="http://www.valancourtbooks.com/gerald-kersh.html" rel="nofollow">Valancourt Books</a>. I don't think any of them are fantasy stories, though; from the little I know, they seem to be grotesque/comic "slice of life" novels, with the occasional thriller thrown in. Philiphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18076353733931722397noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6045486872620706747.post-18817726888807082892015-09-10T17:18:47.233-07:002015-09-10T17:18:47.233-07:00Ta very much - I'll read that at the weekend. ...Ta very much - I'll read that at the weekend. :]J McEvoyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04041757652557198819noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6045486872620706747.post-37557291364306336672015-09-10T16:56:03.913-07:002015-09-10T16:56:03.913-07:00There's a PDF version here.There's a PDF version <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&ved=0CDIQFjACahUKEwjXrpHt0-3HAhXkstsKHZqkACo&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ancient-dreams.com%2Fapp%2Fdownload%2F4472361%2FMen%2BWithout%2BBones%2B-%2BKersh.pdf&usg=AFQjCNEPsCnMN7iHZDuaBQP6xOPL6fTm9Q&sig2=uN_P77uE5aT14FlZ4FrKRQ&bvm=bv.102022582,d.d24&cad=rja" rel="nofollow">here</a>. Philiphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18076353733931722397noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6045486872620706747.post-3504398531703145082015-09-10T15:38:04.989-07:002015-09-10T15:38:04.989-07:00Hi Philip, thanks. I do agree Kersh deserves serio...Hi Philip, thanks. I do agree Kersh deserves serious attention - I think he had a knack of confounding expectations and The Queen of Pig Island is perhaps the best example, the business of the bones used a hook rather than a reveal. He judged this absolutely perfectly and I can't help but wonder if he'd been writing for the pulps, would the editors have insisted on doing it the other way round. <br /><br />The fact of his stories being published in Esquire probably deprived him of a genre audience, while the nature of his stories probably deprived him of a mainstream one. It's quite a dilemma and seems to have resulted in a very undeserved fate. I'm not at all sure what happened to the novels - I've never seen one in all my years of haunting second-hand bookstores. Ellison does bemoan Kersh's obscurity in his introduction, which is on the money.<br /><br />I haven't read The Oxoxoco Bottle - sounds interesting, so I'll see if I can root out a copy.J McEvoyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04041757652557198819noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6045486872620706747.post-71233607535602633182015-09-10T11:15:07.047-07:002015-09-10T11:15:07.047-07:00I don't think it was the first I'd heard o...I don't think it was the first I'd heard of him, but this great little book was certainly the first time I read him at any length. As you observe, part of what makes him so distinctive is the way he combines potentially ludicrous pulp-SF material with the style and sensibility of a genuine writer; I don't think I'll ever forget my first encounter with "The Queen of Pig Island". I've never read any of his novels (I think Ellison's introduction singles out <i>Fowler's End</i> as the best of them, and possibly one of the best novels in the present galaxy) but apparently they were quite well received in their day, with critics throwing out adjectives like "Dickensian" and "Rabelaisian". It seems that middling popularity can be as fatal to the posthumous reputation as transient bestsellerdom.<br /><br />I have a nice fat collection, called unimaginatively <i>The Best of Gerald Kersh</i>, edited by Simon Raven, whose <i>Doctors Wear Scarlet</i> is a rather fine modern vampire novel. The <i>Best Of...</i> includes many of the stories in <i>Nightshades and Damnations</i>, besides my own personal favourite, "The Oxoxoco Bottle", a post-vanishment adventure of Ambrose Bierce which knocks Carlos Fuentes' <i>Old Gringo</i> into a cocked hat. I believe I first saw "The Oxoxoco Bottle", as I first saw Sturgeon's <i>Some of Your Blood</i>, in some Alfred Hitchcock collection or other, which may have been my first inkling that Kersh was worth serious attention.Philiphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18076353733931722397noreply@blogger.com